Adfonic, the smarter mobile buying platform, today announced the release of its AdSnap: Mobile Real-time Bidding (RTB) Report, which compares the results gained through mobile RTB, the programmatic trading of mobile advertisement based on algorithms to non-RTB methods of running mobile advertising campaigns. RTB works in a similar way to stock exchanges and online auction sites, using big data and smart algorithms to determine the best mobile sites and applications for a campaign based on goals set by buyers.

The comparison, based on billions of ad impressions from across Adfonic's mobile advertising platform, reveals that algorithmic trading of ads increases ad clickthrough rates (CTRs) by an average of 97%. For some advertising verticals, such as Style and Fashion, the uplift is 231%, showing that the algorithmic trading approach of RTB is highly effective at finding the right ad impressions for the right audiences.

Adfonic's AdSnap also demonstrates that mobile RTB improves CTRs around the globe. Mobile RTB ads in the UK and USA are among the best-performing and they typically attract around twice as many clicks for the same number of ad impressions as mobile ads bought through non-RTB methods.

The above chart demonstrates the propensity of publishers to open their inventory up to programmatic buying. Publishers benefit from mobile RTB because they only have to supply data once to be accessible to all buyers across an exchange. This incentive works: the AdSnap analysis shows eCPMs for publishers are 64% higher on average when compared to non-RTB.

RTB With Rich Media Is A Powerful Combination

Rich media mobile ad formats include elements that users can interact with, for example by swiping or tilting their mobile devices, and encourage users to Engage with brands. According to the AdSnap analysis these formats prove to be 65% more effective in terms of clickthroughs than standard banner ads, but when combined with the data-driven targeting of RTB they are on average more than twice as effective at generating CTRs for advertisers, achieving a 218% uplift compared to standard banners.